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Kennedy News

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George Diller Kennedy Space Center, Fla. (Phone: 321/867-2468)

07.18.05

NOTE TO EDITORS
:
62-05

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Media Event at KSC Wednesday, July 20

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), to be launched on August 10 aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, will be the focus of a news media opportunity at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 20.

Media representatives will be taken inside the clean room at KSC's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility to photograph the MRO and talk with project management and test team members from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin.

The MRO is designed to search for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time. While other Mars missions have shown that water flowed across the surface in Mars' history, it remains a mystery as to whether water was ever present long enough to provide a habitat for life. The MRO science instruments and cameras will provide the most detailed study of the Martian surface and the planet's atmosphere ever conducted by an orbiting Mars spacecraft.

Other spokespeople will also be available from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin for the MRO spacecraft and its mission including representatives for the Atlas V launch vehicle.

For this event, full clean room protocol must be observed. Those planning to attend are required to wear long pants and closed-toe shoes. Clean room attire (bunny suits) will be furnished. Quality control personnel will request cleaning of photographic equipment with alcohol wipes that will be provided.

No suede, leather or vinyl camera cases are permitted within the clean room. Special bags will be provided for camera accessories. Please do not wear perfume, cologne or makeup. No graphite pencils, food, tobacco, chewing gum, lighters, matches, pocketknives, cell phones or two-way pagers will be permitted inside the clean room. Wireless microphones and electronic flash photography will be permitted. The lighting in the facility is high-pressure sodium (orange).

STS-114 badges will be honored for this event. Others needing accreditation should contact the NASA News Center at 321/867-2468 by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 19. On Wednesday, media will depart by bus at 10:30 a.m. from the KSC Press Site. Arrival back at the KSC Press Site is anticipated at approximately 1:30 p.m.